Forgotten Africa

Who (or what company) produced the documentary?
Rod Walker
·
Who narrated the documentary?
Martin Plaut

·What was the length of the documentary
23:16


·Describe the documentary.

The documentary is about Africa’s forgotten soldiers who helped shape the future of Africa. The war in the Far East is overlooked, just like the fighting that took place in many regions in Africa. One million African troops participated in the conflict, fighting their way through the jungles of Burma, across the Libyan deserts and in the skies over London.
Not only that, these soldiers who participated in that still are alive and remembered and sound bites were taken by Martin Plaut including the African troops who participated in the war who played a critical part in freeing the world from the threat of fascism.



After 1939 Britain began a program of recruiting soldiers from across its African colonies. Some were put in by force, others wanted to sign up.

The Africans soldiers were put in a new place and it was the first time for them to had eaten processed food, the first time they had seen the ocean, the first time they had been taught to read and write,and transported thousands of miles from home all that to fight on a land that does not belong to them and is so far away.

It took many and many years for them to return to their homes. When they retured they found that their homes did not change much. The experiences they had were very new to them and the people they know. Many of these soldiers used the techniques they used there to liberate themselves.


Why was the documentary interesting?

· The documentary had many interesting and rare sound bites as Martin Plaut hears first hand from the African troops who participated in the war and who played a critical part in freeing the world from the threat of fascism.

Not only that, the content of the story was very interesting discussing the struggle those African soldiers went through and how that event changed their lives and the fate of Africa and how influential they were but the big role they played is forgotten by the world and the history of man kind.

Quality of the narrator’s voice

The quality of the narrator was very clear and the language was simple and that kept me engaged to the story and made me understand how that clarity affects the listener and keeps them committed to the story. However, the sound bites were a bit unclear due to the different accent they were using. The songs of the war was very influential and helped in picturing the story.

Was the documentary too long? Too short?

The documentary was a bit long not the narration, but the sound bites were too many. Even though the sound bites were very effective they were long. If I have done this story I would have deducted many parts of them.

Other observations/suggestions

Overall the story was unique in terms of its content and I found very interesting to re-visit such a forgotten part of history.